Quote:
Originally Posted by Crocodile
Quote:
Originally Posted by DDT
[...] In the mean time the American citizens were to "keep and bare arms" and be prepared at all times to defend themselves and country!
And what does "be prepared" would practically mean these days? Should I have a private jet in my backyard and learn how to fly it once in a while in case I would need to defend the country?
That means to possess the basic weapon of an infantry soldier the rifle and be well practised at shooting with it! The Navy and presumably the Airforce are not part of a "standing army". The Founders had no intention of doing away with the protection of a navy. They did not however want a police state by having a regular army used as government enforcers on the will of the people! So, you don't need an F15, but you do need an AR15.
Here are just a few quotes on this. I suggest you make yourself familiar with them since the truth of this matter is no longer being taught in the educational system.
Tenche Coxe: "Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." –
Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788. Tench Coxe: "As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." in "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution,"
under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789. Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty."
Rep. of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750 (August 17, 1789).
Alexander Hamilton: "...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms."
(Federalist Paper #29) Patrick Henry: "The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun."
3 Elliot, Debates at 386.
Richard Henry Lee: "To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them..."
(LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE, writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788) Richard Henry Lee: "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms."
(Additional letters from the Federal Farmer, at 169, 1788) James Madison: "As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia."
(notes of debates in the 1787 Federal Convention) George Mason: "I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people."
(Elliott, Debates, 425-426) Joseph Story: "The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people."
– Joseph Story. Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. 3 vols. Boston, 1833. Joseph Story (Supreme Court Justice): “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic...”
IMPORTANT NOTE: Back in the 18th century, a "regular" army meant an army that had standard military equipment. So a "well regulated" army was simply one that was "well equipped" and organized. It does not refer to a professional army. The 17th century folks used the term "standing army" or "regulars" to describe a professional army. Therefore, "a well regulated militia" only means a well equipped militia that was organized and maintained internal discipline.
That sums up our Republic for any of you with doubts as to why the USA is the way it is, why we have high gun ownership. Because we are free to defend ourselves as individual sovereign people from intruders form without and from powers within. We designed it this way to be ahead of and more enlightened than the European systems. We had no intentions of repeating the same mistakes of Europe. No other people have such rights! So get off our backs, we don't want to be like you!